Idiots and Idioms
by Atakiri Mizuyuki
Summary: [A spin-off from "King of Games"] Hiding from the cult that resurrected Atem, Yugi, Marik, Odion, and the once-Pharaoh himself are forced to take shelter in a grungy motel for the night. With only two beds and the floor too disgusting to even consider, Yugi and Atem are forced to share a bed, and Atem realizes how unsteady he really is with modern idioms. [Puzzleshipping, One-shot]


_Idiots and Idioms_

[YGO! Puzzleshipping]

"_King of Games" Spin-off_

_Context: This would take place during a later chapter of "King of Games", except that isn't canon for that story at all. Hence, a "spin-off"._

For a last-minute motel room, it could have been worse. They had more than one bed, and the floor didn't look so filthy that it would eat right through their shoes if they stepped on it. It also came with three different kinds of locks.

That still left with them only two beds, though, and no space to sleep on the floor even if they'd been willing to risk its filth. Atem and Odion had offered to find sheets and sleep on the floor, but they were all battered and exhausted, and if they slept on the floor they'd just be even more exhausted in the morning. That idea was quickly rejected, and in its place was accepted the more feasible, if slightly more awkward, option of sharing the beds.

Pairing off was easy enough—Marik and Odion were brothers, and Atem and Yugi had shared a body for two years. Marik and Odion insisted on the bed near the door—they were the tombkeepers, after all, and should be in the most dangerous spot. Odion took the side of the bed near the door in a gesture of protection that—despite Marik's insistence just before—Marik didn't notice. Similarly, Atem lay on the right side of the bed, the door to his left and Yugi to his right.*

Marik was out like a candle, and Odion was so still that if or when he fell asleep they couldn't really tell. Atem knew he wouldn't fall asleep for a while, but he closed his eyes and tried to measure his breathing, and Yugi huddled in a small ball on the other side of the bed.

It only took twenty minutes or so before another facet of the room they had been too preoccupied to notice before made itself known—the heater was broken, and it was a Northeastern American winter on the other side of the walls. Even though Yugi tried to keep himself still, Atem could still feel his shivers through the mattress.

Atem opened his eyes, enough faint light coming through the closed—and locked and blinded—windows at the front of the motel room for him to make out Yugi fairly well. The boy—he was nearly as old as Atem and legally an adult, but Atem would always think of him as a boy—was still curled tightly into a ball, hovering against the far edge of the bed. He was trying to conserve his body heat and not shiver at the same time, a losing combination. Atem watched him for a moment, wondering why he didn't just come closer.

"You'd be warmer if were beside me," he said, keeping his voice low so he didn't waken Marik or Odion. Yugi, whose eyelids had been squeezed tight, opened his eyes and glanced at Atem. It was disconcerting that Atem couldn't quite read Yugi's expression, although he hoped it was only the dim light and not a sign of distance between him and his partner.

"Come on," he said, lifting an arm and making a space beneath the sheets for Yugi to slide into. Yugi still didn't move, though he looked like he was considering it. Atem sighed. He'd fully admit that he didn't understand modern taboos and thoughts on physicality all that well, but it wasn't like he was asking Yugi to _cuddle_ with him or something. Just to come close enough that Yugi could use some of his body heat and freeze to death through the night. "We used to share a body."

That did it, and Yugi, sheepishly, wriggled into the spot Atem had made for him. Atem draped his arm over Yugi—which, alright, he'd admit, was probably a little strange, but Yugi was his partner and he was freezing and it's hardly like he cared about this society's conventions—and Yugi in return pushed himself against Atem's chest.

Atem couldn't quite help but smile, even while he tried to clear his mind again so that he could try to sleep. It felt nice being like this, Yugi warm against his side, Atem able to help him and make him comfortable. His neck was starting to go stiff on the thin pillows and he brought his head down, right into some of Yugi's hair. He didn't mind, though. It was warmer, and if nothing else, it filtered out the strong smell of Motel that permeated the room.

Only a few minutes passed, but Atem had nearly managed to find sleep.

"… This isn't fair," Yugi muttered, mostly to himself, but of course Atem heard it.

Atem shuffled back a little, just enough that he could look at Yugi's face and not just the top of his head. Yugi's shoulders were hunched, though, blocking some of his view.

"What isn't fair, Yugi?" Atem wondered if his partner was thinking of the fact that they'd been forced to duck into this foul place to hide, or even the situation with the beds. "I'm sorry that you couldn't have had a bed to yourself. I'm sure that would have been more pleasant."

"That isn't what I mean," Yugi muttered into the bed sheets. Atem's frown deepened. He wondered if Yugi thought himself a bother, lying beside Atem like this.

"You aren't bothering me, and it's certainly not your fault that you're so cold. I'm happy that I can help you."

"I— No, Pharaoh. That isn't what I mean, either."

"Then what _do_ you mean?" Yugi didn't speak, and Atem fought down a sigh. He knew that having to run and hide was difficult on Yugi—it was stressful for all of them. But they didn't have a choice. None of them could afford to be found, and Yugi more so than any of them. Atem couldn't let anything happen to him. "If you don't talk to me, I can't help you, partner."

Atem couldn't see Yugi's expression, but his body stiffened, like he'd had some sort of emotional epiphany, or at least sudden feeling. Atem didn't interrupt or hurry him. Yugi muttered something distinct and almost angry-sounding into the sheets, then turned his head so that he was staring Atem right in the eyes.

"I like you, Pharaoh."

Atem gazed back at him.

"I know you do," he replied, puzzled. "We're partners. I like you, as well, of course." Yugi blinked, then scowled. He hid the blush starting to appear on his face in his hands.

"I don't mean like that," he spluttered. Atem was just getting more confused. "I mean… I have feelings for you."

"Yes," Atem agreed, wondering if there was something he wasn't getting here. He'd never been terribly good at Japanese idioms, and he wondered if that's what was going on here. "I have feelings for you, too. That's what friendship means after all, isn't it?"

Yugi let out a sound of frustration, muffled between his fingers. Atem felt sorry that he couldn't help with whatever communication break-down was going on here. From what little of Yugi's face he could make out between Yugi's hands, his partner's face was bright red.

Yugi lowered his hands, his face uncertain and shy and embarrassed and determined, then he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Atem's.

_That_ the once-Pharaoh understood.

He barely had time to comprehend what had just happened before Yugi was gone, gathered in a ball of humiliation and self-pity on the other side of the bed. Atem blinked, repeatedly. He was usually the most clever, if not brightest, person in the room, but now he felt about as quick as an old man with a broken leg. A blush was gathering over his cheeks, and he hoped the room was dark enough that Yugi wouldn't notice.

"That's why it isn't fair," Yugi was saying, his face hidden in his hands again. "Because you're sharing a bed with someone who feels for you differently than you feel for them. And that's not fair."

"Feeling… You mean… sexually?" Yugi gave another strangled cry of embarrassment, this one rather loud compared to the silence of the room. Atem listened carefully, but it didn't seem like the noise had made Marik or Odion wake up.

"Ph-Pharaoh," Yugi spluttered, peering at him between his fingers. Atem frowned.

"If that is what it is, then you should say it. I don't understand most of your idioms and euphemisms," he insisted. Yugi was hiding completely behind his hands again, looking like he was too embarrassed to ever even consider lowering them again. Although Atem didn't like that he was hiding, he did appreciate that it gave him a moment to think.

Yugi was romantically interested in him? He'd never even considered that before. Yugi was his friend, the boy who had solved the Millennium Puzzle and freed him, the one who helped him recover his memories, the person who had stood at his side and saved the world. His partner. To think of Yugi as anything else had never even occurred to him.

But now that the idea was placed before him, it did feel strange. And yet… fitting. He couldn't say right now that he was attracted to Yugi, but perhaps he could be. After all, Yugi was everything he could hope to find in a romantic partner—he was intelligent, and brave, with a large heart, and overflowing kindness. He'd never been born as one, but Yugi truly had the heart and spirit of a Pharaoh of old. He would not be just a fitting companion, but a perfect partner.

Ah. They would still be partners. Maybe it made more sense to Atem than he had realized.

He reached out, tentatively at first, but with more resolve, and pulled Yugi's hands away from his face. It was a bit of a struggle—Yugi did not want to come out of his little ball—but Atem was much stronger than him, and after a moment Yugi relented. He still wouldn't open his eyes or lower his shoulders, though. Atem put a hand under Yugi's chin and lifted his head up, and that took Yugi so off guard that he didn't fight back at all.

This time, Atem kissed him.

Atem had never actually done this before, and he had no idea what he was doing. But Yugi felt warm, and his lips were soft, and Atem's heart was pounding, but he liked it. He let Yugi go after a moment, and before Yugi could shuffle back to the other side of the bed, he put an arm around him and touched their foreheads together.

"I do not know what all of my feelings are, but whatever they are, they are for you." He wasn't entirely sure what he meant—he knew what he _wanted_ to say, but he didn't the words he had uttered matched it—but it sounded romantic, and Yugi seemed to think so too. His face flushed bright red again, but he didn't seem ashamed this time.

"I…"

"Go to sleep," Atem shushed him, pulling him closer with one arm like he had before. This time Yugi cuddled right against his chest, his body tense like he still couldn't believe this was happening.

Atem was surprised how quickly his heart was beating, and how different this felt now. Not different in a bad way, but different. Less comfortable. More… exciting.

Yugi raised himself up and kissed Atem again, and this time Atem kissed him back. He still didn't know what he was doing—but it was nice. Yugi broke it off after just a couple moments, and he hid his face—bright red again—against Atem's chest.

"Good night, Pharaoh," he whispered. Atem's heart was beating so hard he wasn't sure he'd be able to sleep for another week or two, but he couldn't help but smile.

"Good night, partner."

[END]

_The next time the four of them had to share a room, Marik, with no explanation, insisted that Yugi and Atem get their own room, and when pressed, finally broke and said "If you're going to be lovey-dovey can you not do it in a place where I can't leave?". He and Odion were awake the entire time. Oops._

What kind of a title is that?

DOOR] [Odion, Marik] [Atem, Yugi]

A quick little Puzzleshipping one-shot I wrote because I got the image in my head and it was _really cute_. / I'm awkwardly on the fence of not shipping Puzzleshipping, but totally shipping it.

This is a spin-off for "King of Games", as in, for KoG's canon, it is not canon, or, it is fan-fiction for a fan-fiction. Yep. This doesn't actually happen in the ff (although I will probably use more or less the same scenario and then pull out the romantic stuff because it's a realistic scenario for the story).

I haven't read through this, so my apologies if it's rough or jumpy.


End file.
